August is generally known as a slightly slower month for cinema as the industry prepares for the juggernauts of the film festival season and summer blockbusters fade away as kids return to school and parents to work.
This year, Barbie and Oppenheimer are still dominating the multiplex screens, while films such as Haunted Mansion and Gran Turismo are trying to get a slice of the pie too. But there’s very little for horror fans out there at the moment.
While we anxiously await the arrival of Saw X and The Exorcist: Believer, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, which premiered in the US on 11 August, looks very promising for us horror fans.
Here’s everything you need to know about The Last Voyage of the Demeter.
What is The Last Voyage of the Demeter about?
Based on the ‘The Captain’s Log’ chapter in Bram Stoker’s 1897 masterpiece Dracula, The Last Voyage of the Demeter does exactly what it says on the tin. The film tells the story of how Dracula crossed the raging sea from Romania to London on board of the doomed vessel Demeter.
Dracula, being a vampire, gets peckish during the long voyage and begins to kill the crew, one by one. We get it, Drac, we get hangry too.
Who’s in it?
The film’s ensemble cast include Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, The Boogeyman’s David Dastmalchian, Game of Thrones’ Liam Cunningham and young talent Woody Norman, who will next star in Samuel Bodin’s Cobweb.
Dracula himself will be played by Javier Botet as a monstrous creature, a far cry from Nic Cage’s comical portrayal in Renfield.
Who directed it?
That would be The Troll Hunter’s André Øvredal!
Is there a trailer?
Damn right there is. Take a look at the gloriously silly trailer for The Last Voyage of the Demeter.
What did the critics say about The Last Voyage of the Demeter?
Disappointingly, The Last Voyage of the Demeter did not capture the attention or the hearts of critics overseas.
The Hollywood Reporter called Botet’s Dracula “one of the viscerally scariest Draculas ever seen onscreen, but he’s also one of the dullest.”
David Ehrlich of Indiewire said the film “is suffocated under a thick layer of unnatural gray murk that makes the whole production feel cheaper for trying to hide its budget constraints.”
READ MORE: FrightFest 2023 Dates and Line-up for the August Horror Extravaganza
In a more positive review, IGN criticised the runtime of the film, but added that “there’s still a bloody-good addition to Dracula lore found in the dimly lit decks and cargo hold of the Demeter.”
The film only raked in $6.5 million in its opening weekend in the US, too, meaning audiences weren’t too into its watery delights either.
When is The Last Voyage of the Demeter released in the UK?
We have some bad news for you.
Credit: Universal Pictures
The Last Voyage of the Demeter was scheduled for 11 August release in the UK, but the film completely disappeared from the release calendar a few weeks ago.
The reason it disappeared is that eOne, who held the distribution rights in the UK, was forced to stop distributing films in the UK.
The move from Hasbro, who owns eOne, came as a shock in July. eOne had distributed films such as The Fabelmans and Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves earlier this year.
Universal Pictures is distributing the film in a lot of markets, so perhaps they will be able to pick up the UK rights too. There’s still hope that The Last Voyage of the Demeter will make its way to UK cinemas later this year. We just don’t know when exactly.
1 Comment
Nothing to do with Hasbro,Lionsgate bought eOne and have no plans on releasing any time soon